Cassie Writes. annotated tangents from the RMIT Bachelor of Communication (Media)

Radio Reflection: Semester 2, 1.1 – Multi Platform Production & Distribution

(Since I feel that the approaches we had to take in regards to producing and then distributing our audio files online were quite different processes, I have split them and will discuss each separately.)

PRODUCTION

Having the use of online collaboration was pretty much essential in all of the group work completed last semester (and over the break), both in our documentary groups and in Room With A View. For starters, most of our discussion and planning took place online in Facebook groups, where we could easily and frequently contact each other and share information - links, articles, ideas.
As I had never met anyone in both my Room With A View group or my tutorial group, as I was yet to share classes with any of them, having electronic communication  as a tool was invaluable as we could easily discuss not only our ideas, but also meeting times and locations to further our discussion. Although this information could have been communicated through group emails, or text messages, there is arguably nothing these days that is as ‘instant’ and powerful in small group communication as the creation of a Facebook group and messaging therein, providing each member actually has a Facebook account. Facebook’s usefulness also came into play when one of the other RWAV groups was left with only two group members, everyone else being overseas. Through Facebook (and one of the member’s cry for help on the RMIT Media page) I was able to ‘raise my hand’ and volunteer to help them out, and was also ‘introduced’ to everyone else without having to meet them. I also had easy access to all their preproduction and was also able to cover a pre-recorded interview when one of the group members met with an accident. It is safe to say that without this kind of instantaneous electronic connection, the show would never have run as smoothly as it did.
Another great arena used for communication in these projects was that of Google Docs. For the uninitiated, Google Docs are simply variations of documents that can be created using Microsoft Office or Open Office – the word document, the spreadsheet, the slideshow, etc – that is stored online and can be edited by multiple users simultaneously.  As a producer in my Room With A View group, I decided to create runsheets using Google Docs for these reasons:

1. Everyone in the group had access to the most current edition (so there was no confusion between files sent out);
2. People in my group were easily able to update any information that was either incorrect or not yet provided;
3. We had a link that we could easily share with Elizabeth for her approval; and
4. The information still stayed relatively private as only group members had access.

In the formation of the documentary, Google Docs played a much less important role, but still enabled us to share information about the type of ‘structure’ we were looking for and also possible questions to ask.

In terms of the actual sharing of draft work/pre-recorded segments, there were two websites (or programs) that we used to accomplish this. The first was RMIT’s ROAR - an excellent place for us to be able to share any work that we’d done in the lead up to the final project. For example, in the Documentary group, having each person post their individual interview on ROAR was fantastic as the permission settings allowed us all to stream and even download the work of our group members, giving us all time to think about how we wanted to put things together in the final piece, as well as any criticisms we had or things that we wanted to fix. The links and information posted by each individual on ROAR were also invaluable when it came to the collation of sources needed for the final documentary, as they were all therefore easy to access and we could make sure not to leave anything out.

In terms of Room With A View, ROAR also allowed us to listen to sections of group members’ documentaries that we could use on the show, but it served a much higher purpose than just that. The Media Annotation Tool (MAT) allowed us to not only listen back to our ‘demo’ versions of RWAV (recorded in the 3RRR studio) but also to critically analyse them, pinpointing things we did well and also sections where we went wrong. This was a crucial practice for us because our first demo was quite horrendous, and we received a fail for it. However, through this (through listening back, working out where we went wrong, communicating together and putting all our effort into it) we ended up with quite a strong show that we all could be proud of.

The other website/application that was used was Dropbox, which was great for sending music files (so that everyone could hear what was going to be played on the show beforehand, and form their commentary accordingly) and also pre-records without compressing them. One of the downfalls of ROAR was that the recordings needed to be an MP3, and therefore could not have the highest possible bit rate. Passing files through Dropbox was an easy way to ensure the content we played would be of the highest quality we could manage, while still giving everyone access to it.

DISTRIBUTION

At first, being a third-year Media student in a course that is comprised predominately of second-year Media and third-year Professional Communication students felt a little bit strange. However, as time progressed in the course I realised that some of the other subjects I had studied gave me a different perspective on some of the assignments of our course. Some of these things were minor (such as the fact that my Broadcast Media documentary was now two years old and no longer suitable for airing on RWAV). The area where I felt the most different in perspective was that of multi-platform production and distribution, and I will now reflect on some of the reasons why.

Having already completed Integrated Media 1&2, I had learnt lots about the importance of social media integration and connecting with fans and the community online. My interest in radio led me to working on a research project last semester, entitled Radio In The Digital Age, where we looked at the importance of digital technology (and online content in particular) in establishing a connection with current and future listeners of radio shows or stations. By talking to many different people, as well as being part of the SYN Online Team, I learnt that there were certain integral elements to a radio show's online presence. Although different people will probably have different ideas about these, I feel that the main elements are:

- Offical website page (as an offshoot of the Station's website)
- Social media presence through different channels
- Accessible podcasts that are correctly tagged.
- Easy-to-find playlists

Room With A View, as a 3RRR show, already had a wonderful website on the RRR page in which playlists could be easily updated (and videos/band bios automatically added). In addition to this, Radio On Demand (which allows website visitors to listen to past shows in their entirety) is completely wonderful – not many radio stations (if any) are lucky enough to have this facility. However, something Room With A View didn’t have were easily downloadable bite-sized podcasts or a strong social media presence. The first problem could easily be fixed by uploading individual parts of the show onto ROAR, and making them accessible to the public. When it came to social media, however, I felt that someone had to be the one to begin something, and so I made an official Twitter account for Room With A View, taking my cue from the Breakfasters account, whom I follow. So far, I feel that Twitter has been a phenomenal success. People are able to live-tweet their shows and even directly mention the bands whom they are playing. They can do the same with interviews and even (theoretically) source questions from the public, as 3RRR does not have a text or message line in the same way that SYN (for example) does. This not only makes our content more accessible to our listeners but also allows them to participate in our show in new and exciting ways, giving them an extra level of engagement. It also means that 3RRR’s official twitter can retweet any of our relevant tweets to their much larger follower base, meaning that more people could possibly tune in if they are enticed by our content.
It also means that people we interviewed can link to us, as Clare Bowditch did, sharing the Radio On Demand link for a RWAV show that played a documentary she was involved in. This kind of exposure only means good things for the show, and should be used not as a distraction, but as an extra incentive to create incredible content.

All in all, I have discovered that the time we live in is an incredible one, as we can easily share ideas, content and information from our own computers, and collaborate easily without physically being in the same space. Although live meet-ups are still incredibly important to radio (with presenters not being able to build up a pleasant conversational groove without it!) I feel that multi-platform production and distribution really increases accessibility, both for content producers and for listeners, and therefore opens up the potential for new and wonderful things to occur.